Journal of Eastern African Studies

Making a livelihood at the fish-landing site: exploring the pursuit of economic independence amongst Ugandan women
Pearson G, Barratt C, Seeley J, Ssetaala A, Nabbagala G and Asiki G
Qualitative life history data were used to explore the experiences of women who live at five fish-landing sites on Lake Victoria, Uganda. We explored what economic and social opportunities women have in order to try to understand why some women are more vulnerable to violence and other risks than others and why some women are able to create successful enterprises while others struggle to make a living. The ability of women to create a viable livelihood at the landing sites was influenced by a wide variety of factors. Women who had or were able to access capital when they arrived at the landing site to set up their own enterprise had a significant advantage over those who did not, particularly in avoiding establishing sexual relationships in order to get support. Being able to establish their own business enabled women to avoid lower paid and more risky work such as fish processing and selling or working in bars. The development of landing sites and the leisure industry may be having an impact on how women earn money at the landing sites, with the most desirable economic opportunities not necessarily being connected directly to fishing.
"First and foremost the evangelist"? Mission and government priorities for the treatment of leprosy in Uganda, 1927-1948
Vongsathorn K
Early historiography on medicine in British colonial Africa suggests that colonial government and missionary medicine occupied two relatively distinct spheres, and that government officials viewed medical missionaries with suspicion and distrust. Contrary to this paradigm, this article suggests that missionaries and colonial government officials collaborated extensively and amicably in the treatment of leprosy in Uganda. Mission, medical, and government correspondence and reports are drawn upon in order to demonstrate that the suspicion and tension that characterised so many other interactions between British colonial government officials and missionaries was largely absent in the treatment of leprosy in Uganda. The mutual social and cultural priorities of missionaries and government administrators led to a system of isolated, in-patient leprosy care that was limited in scope and reflective not of a goal for the public health of Uganda, but rather a vision for the future of Uganda as a "civilised" and Christian country.
Decolonizing African history: , cosmopolitanism and knowledge production in Zaire, 1971-1975
Henriet B
This article analyses the social and intellectual dynamisms of the Lubumbashi campus of the in the 1970s. It first highlights how Lubumbashi scholars participated in an early post-colonial attempt to radically transform the university's teaching, research and operations, at the crossroads of intellectual decolonization and cosmopolitanism. These efforts both overlapped and clashed with the official Zairian policy of , a politically tinged reappraisal of the country's precolonial past. The article contributes to our limited knowledge of everyday life under Mobutu and of vernacular experiences of , while highlighting Lubumbashi as an important node in the post-independence intellectual networks.
Muslim political dissent in coastal East Africa: complexities, ambiguities, entanglements
Kirby B, Meinema E and Olsson H
This article stages a comparative analysis of Muslim politics in coastal Kenya and Tanzania between 2010 and 2023. We explore parallels, discontinuities, and entanglements between different expressions of - and responses to - Muslim political dissent. Our insights are drawn from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Dar es Salaam, Malindi, and Zanzibar City. We begin by investigating a sharp rise of militant jihadi activity across the region, examining responses by Kenyan, Tanzanian, and U.S. governments, as well as the perceptions of ordinary Muslim citizens. We then explore currents of Muslim civic activism, highlighting the different claims, sentiments, and memories that these movements invoke. Merging these discussions, we analyse episodes of civil unrest and violence that are associated with Muslim dissenters, but which are shrouded with uncertainty. We examine the shifting interpretive frames that Muslim residents apply to these events. We demonstrate how these uncertainties and framing practices, alongside state security strategies, impact the capacity for Muslims at large to engage in political dissent. Using our analysis, we argue that forms of Muslim political expression in coastal East Africa, though comparable and sometimes entangled, must be interpreted with close attention to the distinct experiences, demographic configurations, and political landscapes that characterise different (sub-)national contexts.